So I took delivery of my S70 (demo) with about 5k on the clock. Keen to experience the trials and tribulations of EV's I thought I would mission down to Thredbo to visit my youngest bro for a few days boarding for his birthday.
Wifey couldn't spare the time off work, so I drove down with mum and back with her. (She flew down and met us in Canberra).
It begins, wife off to work, Trip B reset!
First we headed off to Ballina Day Surgery. Beautiful day. Such a legendary move making this charger available, does make this trip a little bit more possible at the moment.
Happily snuck into that spot at about 10.30am for an hours juice while we grabbed a coffee and wandered around.
3-Phase charger achieves a solid 54-55 on my model.
From there we hightailed to Coffs Showgrounds and met Steve who let us in to our box.
With the twin pack 32/20 AMP tails and the Euro adaptor, this had me happily charging at about 55.
We had a bit more time to kill here, so we had lunch at the Happy Frog, then I bought some speedos and goggles and did a few K in the olympic pool that "wasn't that cold" (bullshit).
From here we were off to my first ever supercharger! Not wanting to sit around charging all day we pulled the charger with about 20kms more charge than we "needed" according to typical. Not adverse to adventure I wanted to push it a bit.
Started getting a bit nervous as we sped up and slowed down, going from positive to negative battery estimates. Eventually due to all the roadworks around we did 80 for a fair bit and actually ended up with about 50km battery or something remaining.
Eventually we did make it! With all the roadworks going on around Cassegrain (dirt roads etc) we weren't so sure heading down that road that there would be anything at the end.
Very impressive seeing these rates of charge for the first time. I had no idea the fans at the front of the car went so nuts at the beginning!
From here I had planned to head to the Pullman at Magenta shores for an overnight. They had a Tesla charger, and we've got a good Accor membership so thought we'd see what that was like.
Finally got in there just before midnight with some scary warnings!
Their charger is located in the basement under reception / restaurant.
Single phase, poor charge rate though
From magenta we headed to the Tesla store in Sydney. I wanted to grab a CHADEMO and check the place out. We stopped there for an hour, mum wrangled herself a hat and we grabbed a coffee and chatted *sugar* with Adriano about how he should give my referral code to all the orders sitting on his desk.
More sexy charge rates and we were on the way to Ruben Hills for a quick lunch before we headed South again.
Being a bit of a coffee fiend we dropped in to Ruben Hills to pick up some filter for the snow, and some lunch. Pork Arepas was absolutely epic.
A quick stop in Goulburn with our buddy top right of screen! Had some hilarious stories about his wife "signing her name" all over his 21 inch wheels which he'd only just had repaired.
From Goulburn we thought we'd drop in to Clonakilla real quick for a light lunch and a few boxes.
The stunning weather continues. We had to hit the road before I got stuck into the Ceoltoiri and SV we just bought.
From here we headed to the CHADEMO in Canberra. The plan was to fill er up and wait for Holly to land from Brisbane. Hit trouble here though without the pass to activate the charger!
So we headed to the best charger around I could identify, which was at the Hotel Realm in Canberra.
Pretty snug parking spots there, but very grateful to find them.
At 40A I figured with a long dinner, this should be enough to get us out of trouble. It was 6pm, Holly was landing at about 9.15pm!
After a bit of a stressful drive up, we ended up stopping in Cooma so I could grab some new snowboard boots. The store is 24 hour which is pretty ridiculous. While we were there I parked around the side next to a food truck that wasn't operating. I noticed a 20A plug so snuck in a quick 20km charge
We finally made it to Lake Crackenback at about midnight, in time for a few vino's by the fire. Only had 10A overnight though which was horrible given we were on zero!
The next morning we hit the hill again to get up to thredbo for a day boarding. With the continual warnings about cold weather, altitude considerations etc, I was worried about battery performance.
Tensions were high for this final ascent! Seat heaters were off, air con was off, everyone was thinking light aerodynamic thoughts.
We drove past about 5 full carparks to arrive at the Alpine's charging spot (wow glory park) at about minus 2km of range by my reckoning.
Very very glad to find the charger unoccupied (we had booked it). I think the 8 hour slots are a bit generous, but I shouldn't be complaining given the state of my poor little battery!
I could hear the car smiling at this charging rate (55) after the previous nights 10A horror.
Had a fun two days boarding, with heaps of range once we got full from the Alpine charger. Used a lot less fuel getting back, and dropped mum in Canberra for a flight back, while wifey and I headed to Goulburn to get to Magenta shores again for the overnight charge.
Called ahead to book a room and the charger, could only achieve a 2 bed deluxe villa at $280, but wasn't about to argue with them.
After a quick charge at Goulburn we arrived at Magenta very late ~4am. Holly was greeted with some bad news at reception - the Tesla charger was in use (we booked it!)
Turns out there was a bloody Tesla convention on for the weekend (I found out the next morning), hence all the cars.
So there I am at 4am scouting the joint for non 10A charging so we can get moving back to Brisbane. (Holly has to work Monday so it's a not negotiable).
Saved again by the 20A tail, I found one just outside the garage door. Seriously pissed at them for not reserving the charger for us, I parked on the footpath and got 55 km/h as compared to their (not so)HPWC. While I'm plugging this 20A in - Holly goes to me - do you still love this car? I go yep!
Woke up relieved to have a full battery, and finished the rest of the journey relatively adventure free! Couldn't get in to the showgrounds on a sunday, so we just drove straight to Ballina (a few slow spots got us there in the 70).
3000 KMs later the poor thing needs a wash!
Might add more detail later once I've done some work!
Wifey couldn't spare the time off work, so I drove down with mum and back with her. (She flew down and met us in Canberra).
It begins, wife off to work, Trip B reset!
First we headed off to Ballina Day Surgery. Beautiful day. Such a legendary move making this charger available, does make this trip a little bit more possible at the moment.
Happily snuck into that spot at about 10.30am for an hours juice while we grabbed a coffee and wandered around.
3-Phase charger achieves a solid 54-55 on my model.
From there we hightailed to Coffs Showgrounds and met Steve who let us in to our box.
With the twin pack 32/20 AMP tails and the Euro adaptor, this had me happily charging at about 55.
We had a bit more time to kill here, so we had lunch at the Happy Frog, then I bought some speedos and goggles and did a few K in the olympic pool that "wasn't that cold" (bullshit).
From here we were off to my first ever supercharger! Not wanting to sit around charging all day we pulled the charger with about 20kms more charge than we "needed" according to typical. Not adverse to adventure I wanted to push it a bit.
Started getting a bit nervous as we sped up and slowed down, going from positive to negative battery estimates. Eventually due to all the roadworks around we did 80 for a fair bit and actually ended up with about 50km battery or something remaining.
Eventually we did make it! With all the roadworks going on around Cassegrain (dirt roads etc) we weren't so sure heading down that road that there would be anything at the end.
Very impressive seeing these rates of charge for the first time. I had no idea the fans at the front of the car went so nuts at the beginning!
From here I had planned to head to the Pullman at Magenta shores for an overnight. They had a Tesla charger, and we've got a good Accor membership so thought we'd see what that was like.
Finally got in there just before midnight with some scary warnings!
Their charger is located in the basement under reception / restaurant.
Single phase, poor charge rate though
From magenta we headed to the Tesla store in Sydney. I wanted to grab a CHADEMO and check the place out. We stopped there for an hour, mum wrangled herself a hat and we grabbed a coffee and chatted *sugar* with Adriano about how he should give my referral code to all the orders sitting on his desk.
More sexy charge rates and we were on the way to Ruben Hills for a quick lunch before we headed South again.
Being a bit of a coffee fiend we dropped in to Ruben Hills to pick up some filter for the snow, and some lunch. Pork Arepas was absolutely epic.
A quick stop in Goulburn with our buddy top right of screen! Had some hilarious stories about his wife "signing her name" all over his 21 inch wheels which he'd only just had repaired.
From Goulburn we thought we'd drop in to Clonakilla real quick for a light lunch and a few boxes.
The stunning weather continues. We had to hit the road before I got stuck into the Ceoltoiri and SV we just bought.
From here we headed to the CHADEMO in Canberra. The plan was to fill er up and wait for Holly to land from Brisbane. Hit trouble here though without the pass to activate the charger!
So we headed to the best charger around I could identify, which was at the Hotel Realm in Canberra.
Pretty snug parking spots there, but very grateful to find them.
At 40A I figured with a long dinner, this should be enough to get us out of trouble. It was 6pm, Holly was landing at about 9.15pm!
After a bit of a stressful drive up, we ended up stopping in Cooma so I could grab some new snowboard boots. The store is 24 hour which is pretty ridiculous. While we were there I parked around the side next to a food truck that wasn't operating. I noticed a 20A plug so snuck in a quick 20km charge
We finally made it to Lake Crackenback at about midnight, in time for a few vino's by the fire. Only had 10A overnight though which was horrible given we were on zero!
The next morning we hit the hill again to get up to thredbo for a day boarding. With the continual warnings about cold weather, altitude considerations etc, I was worried about battery performance.
Tensions were high for this final ascent! Seat heaters were off, air con was off, everyone was thinking light aerodynamic thoughts.
We drove past about 5 full carparks to arrive at the Alpine's charging spot (wow glory park) at about minus 2km of range by my reckoning.
Very very glad to find the charger unoccupied (we had booked it). I think the 8 hour slots are a bit generous, but I shouldn't be complaining given the state of my poor little battery!
I could hear the car smiling at this charging rate (55) after the previous nights 10A horror.
Had a fun two days boarding, with heaps of range once we got full from the Alpine charger. Used a lot less fuel getting back, and dropped mum in Canberra for a flight back, while wifey and I headed to Goulburn to get to Magenta shores again for the overnight charge.
Called ahead to book a room and the charger, could only achieve a 2 bed deluxe villa at $280, but wasn't about to argue with them.
After a quick charge at Goulburn we arrived at Magenta very late ~4am. Holly was greeted with some bad news at reception - the Tesla charger was in use (we booked it!)
Turns out there was a bloody Tesla convention on for the weekend (I found out the next morning), hence all the cars.
So there I am at 4am scouting the joint for non 10A charging so we can get moving back to Brisbane. (Holly has to work Monday so it's a not negotiable).
Saved again by the 20A tail, I found one just outside the garage door. Seriously pissed at them for not reserving the charger for us, I parked on the footpath and got 55 km/h as compared to their (not so)HPWC. While I'm plugging this 20A in - Holly goes to me - do you still love this car? I go yep!
Woke up relieved to have a full battery, and finished the rest of the journey relatively adventure free! Couldn't get in to the showgrounds on a sunday, so we just drove straight to Ballina (a few slow spots got us there in the 70).
3000 KMs later the poor thing needs a wash!
Might add more detail later once I've done some work!
